Typically in an automobile, such as a hatchback car, configured such that a trunk opening surrounded by right and left rear pillars (a frame body), a rear header, and a rear end panel is formed at a rear body, a beam member linearly supporting right and left damper supports in a vehicle width direction cannot be provided because a trunk space formed between the right and left damper supports needs to be ensured. For this reason, there is a disadvantage that a trunk and the trunk opening are easily deformed due to an input load received from suspension dampers each supporting a corresponding one of rear wheels.
In order to overcome such a disadvantage, the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been employed.
That is, in such a configuration, each rear pillar is formed to have a substantially triangular or rectangular closed cross section extending in the vertical direction, and a reinforcement (a connection member) connecting each rear pillar to a corresponding one of damper supports is provided to extend from the corresponding one of the damper supports toward the upper rear side of a vehicle so that an upwardly-input damper load (a pushing-up load) can be effectively transmitted to the closed rear pillar cross section.
The reinforcement extends toward the upper rear side of the vehicle, and the rear pillar is typically in a front-high rear-low inclination state. For this reason, the reinforcement is connected in the direction intersecting the closed rear pillar cross section, and pushes the front side of the closed rear pillar cross section. This easily deforms the closed rear pillar cross section, leading to a lower stiffness.
For this reason, a reinforcement member (a so-called “backing plate”) receiving the reinforcement is, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, provided in the closed rear pillar cross section connected to the reinforcement, i.e., provided between a rear pillar inner panel (an inner panel of a frame member) and a rear pillar reinforcement (an outer-vehicle panel of the frame member), to reduce or prevent deformation of the closed rear pillar cross section.